1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the field of magnetoresistive sensors and more particularly to magnetoresistive heads for magnetic disk drives.
2. Brief Summary of the Prior Art
Magnetoresistive sensors responsive to a change in resistivity caused by the presence of magnetic fields are increasingly employed as read transducers in the heads of magnetic disk drives primarily because the change of resistivity is independent of disk speed, depending only on the magnetic flux and secondarily because sensor output may be scaled by the sense current.
These sensors typically comprise a thin strip of NiFe alloy (Permalloy) magnetized along an easy axis of low coercivity. Many other ferromagnetic alloys are also candidates. The strips are usually mounted in the head such that the easy axis is transverse the direction of disk rotation and parallel to the plane of the disk. The magnetic flux from the disk causes rotation of the magnetization vector of the strip, which in turn causes a change in resistivity to a sense current flowing between lateral contacts. The resistivity varies approximately according to the cosine-squared of the angle between the magnetization vector and the current vector (i.e., delta-rho=rho-max * cosine-squared theta, where theta is the angle between the magnetization and current vectors and rho is the resistivity). Due to this cosine-squared relationship, if the magnetization and current vectors are initially aligned, the initial change in resistivity due to disk magnetic flux is low and undirectional. Typically, therefore, either the easy axis magnetization vector or the current vector is biased to approximately 45.degree. to increase responsiveness to angular change in the magnetization vector and to linearize the sensor output.
One problem encountered with magnetoresistive sensors is Barkhausen noise caused by the irreversible motion of magnetic domains in the presence of an applied field, i.e., coherent rotation of the magnetization vector is non-uniform and suppressed, and depends upon domain wall behavior. This noise mechanism is eliminated by creating a single magnetic domain in the sense current region of the strip.
Many different means have been employed to both linearize the sensor output and to provide for a single domain in the sense region. An increase in the length of a strip of magnetoresistive material relative to its height is known to contribute to formation of a single magnetic domain in the central portions of the strip. These migrate toward the center under the influence of external fields. However, long strips may be subject to cross-talk in lateral portions of the strip and may conduct magnetic flux from adjacent tracks to the sense region of the strip. Short strips, in contrast, almost invariably spontaneously "fracture" into multiple domains.
Efforts have been made to provide single domains in the sensor region by shaping the strip so as to reduce edge demagnetizing fields while providing a relatively short physical dimension in the sensor region. See e.g., Kawakami et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,503,394, at FIG. 4a, wherein upper and lower horizontal sections with opposed easy axes are connected at the ends with vertical sections to comprise an endless loop. See also, U.S. Pat. No. 4,555,740 in which the strip has two intermediate, upwardly extending legs. However, even shaped strips "fracture" into multiple domains in the presence of strong transverse magnetic fields caused by the inductive write poles between which the magnetoresistive sensors are conventionally mounted (the poles act as soft-magnetic shields to isolate the sensor from magnetic fields not directly adjacent to the sensor).
Efforts have also been made to form single domains by providing a longitudinal magnetic field in "long" or shaped strips, prior to reading. Such a magnetic field has to be strong enough to cause the formation of a relatively stable, single domain in the central sensor region. This initialization field is generally provided by a barber pole, which is also used to cant the direction of the sense current relative to the easy axis magnetic vector.
For short strips, efforts have been made to maintain single domains by permanent longitudinal biasing from adjacent permanent magnets or atomically coupled antiferromagnetic material which results in exchange biasing. Such biasing means are also provided in some applications to transverse-bias the magnetic vector away from the easy axis to linearize the sensor output, as mentioned above.
Both of these biasing schemes (initialization and permanent) have the drawback in that the biasing magnetic field could adversely affect the information prerecorded on the magnetic disk, and further, a permanent biasing field (both transverse and longitudinal) increases the effective anisotropy of the sensor thereby decreasing sensitivity to disk magnetic flux. The barber pole (canted current) design has the additional disadvantage that the effective length of the sensor area is less than the longitudinal distance between the sensor contacts. The barber pole design also requires precise lithographic processes to apply the canted contacts and shorting stripes.
Exchange-biasing is not commonly used in practice because of the presence of two dissimilar materials (the magnetoresistive material and the antiferromagnetic material) at an exposed interface. This can lead to corrosion which can destroy a head. Further, because exchange biasing is a quantum-mechanical ineraction effect, reliable atomic interaction is a must, but such processing is difficult and yields are low. Further, the effect has a strong temperature dependence, being substantially reduced in the typical operating environments of conventional disk drives.